MakiAli – Sushi & Japanese Pub

Very good sushi! Be prepared they are super busy during the awesome but definately popular happy hour. Expect about a 20 min wait for your items. But well worth it. I’ll be back!

Awesome sushi! Great service! The edemame is the best you’ll ever try, definitely get it. Nice casual friendly atmosphere. Small space though, not many tables. You’ll likely be at the sushi bar or a high top if it is busy. Prices seem a bit steep but average for the area and absolutely worth it. Will definitely return.

Sadly, we were looking forward to our return trip. We previously visited this restaurant under a previous name (Java Sushi), multiple times in the past few years.
Last night we ordered some sushi, edamame & gyoza dumplings.
The sushi was mediocre at best, the edamame was soggy no flavor at all and the gyoza was horrible (day old?). The outside was dry and vegetable filling had no flavor. For the price we paid, we certainly expected more. I asked the hostess if they had changed ownership, and she confirmed yes.
Probably won’t be back.

Still waiting for our main dish after 20 mins. The $ 9 calamari appetizer is a complete ripoff. You will not find more than 10 pieces or 5 big pieces.
The worst is that it seems we somehow don’t get service. Only thing I can guess is that we are the only nonwhite people in the place, staff included. I could be wrong, but please educate me How for 20min, the waitress checked on neighboring tables multiple time while none on us. Not even a is everything working all right for u? I have never been treated like this in my life.
Ok then the waitress got back to me saying that they simply forgot my order. This was convenient.

Ever since the first visit I knew this place was for me. First of all, the sushi is very fresh. The ingredients and unique combinations make for a new twist on sushi. The staff takes the time to make sure things are good and they also will learn your name. This place feels like home. Most nights you will be greeted by the owner. I can’t stress how well this place has put a new twist on an old thing. Prices are competitive and portions are healthy. Will definitely come back many more times!

This place is great for Truckee. The fish is always fresh. The servers are friendly and the price is perfect. For those reviewers making comparisons to SF or other large cities, re-​think your expectations. We’re at 6000 feet and able to eat fresh sushi. Perspective please. Way to go MakiAli for rising to the occasion in this small mountain town.

When my hubby and I moved to Truckee, we did not expect to find a sushi restaurant that was all that great, so were extremely and pleasantly surprised by MakiAli! This place rocks! The sushi is super fresh and they have some really creative and yummy choices. Get the scallop flowers or the Hand Grenades… amazing! To the reviewers who reviewed negatively because they had to wait. This is a small restaurant, and they are making sushi… this isn’t fast food. The service here is fantastic, staff is super friendly, and the prices are incredibly reasonable. Highly recommended!

Excellent experience. Almost closing hour and they invited us in. Great service awesome sushi. And the sharks are on tv

Seriously?!? Why so highly rated? Maybe I’m spoiled by all the great places in the Bay Area but this didn’t even measure up to mediocre. For once I was happy with the tiny portions so I could hurry and leave. So much sauce that you can’t even taste what you’re eating, raw fish didn’t seem fresh, rolls looked more like a friend made it who was just learning but was also cheap with using ingredients. Sigh

My first time experience there was absolutely impressive. Food and service were both above excellent. Place has nice and comfy aura. Price to quality ratio is excellent!

We were hesitant to get sushi in Tahoe but omg so yummy ! We tried over 9 rolls and they were all amazing. The owner was so sweet and the waitress was great ! The funaguchi cold saki was amazing as well. Fast and great service !

The food was amazing. The owner, Allie, is so sweet. She takes great pride in her restaurant. The staff is friendly which is a sign of a good owner. This little restaurant packs a big punch. The Miso soup, made with white miso, is the best I’ve had. Need more tables it’s always busy!

Just went there for Happy Hour dinner, 3 adults and 3 kids. Everything was great! The Dragon Balls and the sliders were amazing! All of the rolls we ordered were great. The staff was friendly and attentive. It got really crowded around dinner time, but everything we ordered came out fast and accurate. Can’t wait to return! We liked Java Sushi over the years, glad to see that the place is still going and has actually improved! Ali, well done!

Mean spirited and rotten service. There is a blond waitress in particular who apparently could neither manager her tables nor the stress of a crowded night. Without any provocation whatsoever she took out her frustrations on me and my kids who were doing nothing but waiting patiently. I ate at MakiAli once before and while there was no incident that time, the service was also far from friendly (the same waitress). When mentioning my negative experience to some friends of mine, also Truckee locals, they shared my opinion of that same waitress — strangely unfriendly. Another person (presumably the manager) apologized for the incident and the apology was accepted, but the damage was done for me. Truckee has lots of great restaurants. I have no place in my life for the bad energy of MakiAli.

I’ve only gotten take out from here so maybe I should save a star should I ever eat in. But the food deserves 5 so there you go.
I’ve gotten take out 4 times since they’ve changed over from Java Sushi. I think the food/​fish quality is better than what I had from Java (admittedly only a couple of times.) My most recent order was this past weekend:
Hamachi and Ahi Nigiri (SO fresh and very delicious)
Spicy Hamachi handroll (awesome and filled with a lot of fish and not just tons of rice)
Crystal Shrimp roll (delicious — and still crunchy even though it was takeout!)
I actually wanted all of this again for breakfast when I woke up the next day :)
In the past I had ordered the Mauie Wowie roll and the hand grenades — also delicious. I typically tend to stick with nigiri and handrolls (because I’m like a seal and addicted to fish!) but do want to try more of the large, crazier rolls.
I’ve dealt with the owner 2x and an employee the other time I was there — each time my order was 100% accurate, they were very friendly and efficient and got me in and out of there quickly. Prices are pretty normal for a tourist town and I’d even say the nigiri is pretty inexpensive compared to other sushi places I’ve been to (including the North Star and Squaw places.) I used to live in the Bay Area so have been to plenty foofy, overpriced sushi places (and some truly delicious ones) there and in other places. I tend to search them out when I travel because delicious sushi is my favorite. MakiAli goes in the latter category of truly delicious for me.
I hope to have time to go in and eat there sometime soon (mostly because I want to try and Curious George for dessert!)! But I am already planning on getting more take out this weekend for sure :)

The sushi chefs are awesome and the new owner is doing a great job with the restaurant.

Great presentation and amazing staff! If you are in Truckee this is a must! Very affordable with some fun twist on traditionally plain sashimi!

Excellent choice for sushi in Truckee. Stopped in after a workout. Just happened to happy hour. Lucky me, prices on the special happy hour menu were about half price of the normal menu. Fish was fresh and awesome. I will be back.

Delicious! Great food, sweet people! Worth it!

I am lucky enough to have eaten sushi all over the world including the Tsukiji Market in Tokyo. The flavor profiles that are coming out of the MakiAli kitchen are amazing. The Chrystal Shrimp is still a winner from Java Sushi days. And the best part of the restaurant is that the owner — Ali — is there, is committed and has given the place a reinvigorated heart.
I am sorry about the reviews that said that they had to wait for their food — sushi is historically prepared one piece at a time — there is a limit on how quickly a sushi chef can ‘crank’ out food. It is about the experience. If you are looking for a fast sushi experience, I am sure the ⁷⁄₁₁ down the street can accommodate. But if you are looking for a fantastic sushi experience, then try MakiAli!
I was there with 5 friends last night — the food was great, the people were fun and the atmosphere was really amazing.
The Dragon Balls were incredible, the saki selection was amazing and the smoked salmon was truly outstanding!

Ordered the Weaverville roll and OH MY GOD. I’m originally from LA and live for sushi and seafood– this roll was one of the best I’ve ever had! I’ll definitely be making this my regular joint. So yummy!

Food was most excellent! Owner cares and tries hard. Only hold up was the 2+ hour experience with a 4 top. Again, great food WILL come back when I have more time!

My family and I have been coming here for years; ever since it was Java Sushi. When it was Java, the atmosphere was much more friendly, the wait staff was on top of what they did and you could get your rolls fast while having a lively conversation with the sushi chefs. Everything was fast, friendly and happy.
Since it became Maki Ali, it’s gone to crap. Last time I came here, my party and I walked out due to it taking 25 minutes just to get our drink order and there were only two other people in the whole place.
Don’t be fooled by the good looks. The servers are slow, and the sushi takes forever to get and once you actually get it, it’s nothing to rave about.
It took 25 minutes to get our miso soup and an entire hour to get our food. It’s pricey too! For just a few mediocre rolls, our bill was over 100 dollars.
Needless to say we will not be coming back here. Save yourself a bad dinner and drive to Reno if you want good sushi! Don’t even bother with this place.

Excellent everything. Yum yum roll was amazing. Super friendly people. Prices are good. Will be back on Monday for happy hour.

Surprisingly good sushi after long drive from bay area. Fresh and tasty. Price is very reasonable and good services. Will come back again for sure

Let me start by saying I have the luxury of living in one of the food Meccas, San Francisco. Hubby found this place via Unilocal and it had good reviews so we thought we’d try it. Honestly, I don’t understand why the reviews are so high. We ordered the Puckster as part of happy hour and Gyoza as our appetizer. I had the teriyaki chicken bowl and hubby ordered the lemon grass noodle bowl for our main course. The Gyoza was nothing to write home about. The Puckster was not what I would ever pass off as a sushi roll. The rice lacked any flavor and the rest of it was extremely bland. Sushi rice contains rice wine and there was no rice wine in that rice. The rice was also extremely mushy.
For the main dishes, the flavors were boring or lacking. My Terriyaki bowl had no trace of Terriyaki in it. I will give them the fact the chicken was cooked well but that’s about it for the dish. The rice was spicy which is about the only flavor that entire bowl had. It was as if they used the spicy flavor to hide the fact that everything else was bland.
The lemon grass noodle bowl my husband had also lacked flavor. I tried some of the noodles and they tasted like nothing. I guess that’s better than tasting horrible. He said the lemongrass flavor was too light and made the dish extremely bland.
I give them one star for the food being edible. I give them the second star because the staff was nice. But I would never come back.

Now let me just tell you how amazing this place was. I came here on a date with myself and sat at the sushi bar.
The sushi chef who assisted me was names Ty, and he was so wonderful.
I ordered red wine (delicious), seaweed salad and miso soup to start. Along with yellowtail and salmon nigiri. And here is where it gets amazing…
Ty And I decided to make up a sushi roll… I gave him an idea of what I wanted… spicy tuna, asparagus, cucumber, avocado and mango… then he added his touch by topping it with blackened Aho and avocado along with some yummy sauces that included spicy mayo… holy shit not only did he do an incredible job whipping it together — it’s the best roll I think I’ve ever had. The Ty-​Chelsea roll, ON POINT!
Rice, sushi, everything great quality and temperature. My first time and I felt like family there!
Excited to visit again and again!!!

Good eats, good ppl, good prices, good beer.
Does anything else matter? No.
Go here.

We ordered takeout on a Saturday night. It took about 20 minutes.
They labeled the container with which roll was which in the container and I thought that was very nice however they did not give us any ginger or was Wasabi. We did not figure this out until we got home and we are really bummed. Sushi without these two things is not as enjoyable. this was a big disappointment!
Catapillar roll — 2 stars — not much flavor at all. We couldn’t quite put our fingers on it as we’ve had tons of Catapillar rolls that were a lot better. It seems that there was not a lot of eel in this roll and the avocado lacked flavor.
Kings roll — 4 stars — I really enjoyed this role however it was extremely hard to eat. Couldn’t eat it with chopsticks so used a fork. I would order this again.
1080 roll — 3 stars — this role was OK. Not a lot of flavor to it.
Chicken rice and vegetable bowl with no rice — 4 stars — my mother-​in-​law got this and she really enjoyed the chicken however there was barely any vegetables there. For $ 11 I would’ve expected a lot more!
Just a note to myself. I didn’t really enjoy the music that was playing in this place and it was loud. I don’t think I would actually go here and eat at the restaurant due to this. Although we may try to order food to go again. Maybe next time we will order sashimi and/​or nigiri and see how things go.
I am just barely getting this three stars. It is possibly more a 2.5.

A nice transition from a pretty good sushi bar to a great sushi bar. We had dinner a few times at the old place, then noticed today the new signage and wondered for a second.
Oddly then we turned up there for dinner, and met the new owner, who is very gregarious and attentive to her clients.
The ambiance is about the same; hipster? Eye decay what you’d call it. There was an attitude of good vibes, and the tapa-​table stool seat was comfortable.
The chef closest to me showed some smooth and sure knife skills, his presentations were notably precise without going all Benihana on the fish.
The food quality was top-​shelf, and though the portions were a bit small, the prices are also on the low side. The hamachi was nice and cold, and very fresh. It’s flavor was pleasing. The same goes for all the other Nigiri sushi we ordered. The unagi was superbly flamed and slightly/​salty– slightly-​sweet.
The miso was homemade and uniquely mild. It could have been warmer. Shivon had saki and we didn’t get to wrastlin’ and all cranky with each other, so it must have been decent stuff.
The new owner, Ali, told us so in a genteel way, and read our mood perfectly.
We will be back!

My husband and I went here for our anniversary dinner, we had a 6:30 reservation and arrived at 6:15 they informed us we’d need to wait for our table which was fine since we arrived early .
We sat at the waiting area and ordered drinks and spicy edamame, the beer was cold and the edamame was so addicting and delectable!
After 15 minutes we were sat at a nice corner table, we ordered 3 rolls and a few rounds of nigiri as well. all of them were insanely delicious very fresh and to top it off they have hands down the best customer service.
We spent around 2 ½ hours here just enjoying everything and each other.
I highly recommend this place! So good!